ANALYSIS | FOOTBAL : Wenger seems further than ever from winning European Cup

Arsenal has perfected qualifying for the Champions League. Winning it remains as elusive as ever.
Under manager Arsene Wenger, Arsenal has played in the group stage of Europe’s top club competition for 17 straight seasons. The team even reached the final once, losing to Barcelona in 2006.
But while the Arsenal leadership seems satisfied by such consistency and the financial security it offers, the lack of European silverware is a glaring omission from the 65-year-old Wenger’s record.
It was a familiar hard luck story for Arsenal on Tuesday, coming oh, so close with a strong second-leg performance against Monaco but ultimately falling out of the competition in the last 16 for the fifth straight season.
The Gunners became the first European team to score at Monaco this season — twice, in fact — while preventing the hosts from hitting the target once. But it wasn’t enough after a defensive implosion at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg last month led to a 3-1 loss.
Despite Arsenal’s 2-0 win on Tuesday, Monaco eliminated the London club on away goals, just as Bayern Munich did in 2013 following another 2-0 win away from home for the Gunners.
There will be the familiar grumbling about the away-goals rule, which Wenger has lobbied UEFA to scrap, but the reality is that the team repeatedly falls short.
“In the first game, we didn’t have that mental level you need to compete at the highest level,” Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker said. “That was missing but you could see last night how good we are as a team and how well organized we can be.
“We need to consider that every day in training and in games. That is why we are so far away from winning the Champions League. When you get knocked out, you are far away.”
And Arsenal is no closer to re-establishing itself as the dominant force at home despite more than USD180 million spent on players in the last two years — largely on attacking players Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
The FA Cup triumph last May did end a nine-year trophy drought and Arsenal is back in the semifinals next month. But in the Premier League, Wenger’s team is third — seven points behind leader Chelsea — and unlikely to lift the trophy for the first time since the unbeaten 2003-04 season.
Finishing in the top four seems certain, though, and even defending champion Manchester City could be overtaken for second place.
“We could take some positives from the Monaco performance and … many things can happen in the Premier League still, with many twists and turns,” said midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who scored Arsenal’s second goal in Monaco. “We will be looking to concentrate on ourselves and take full advantage of the games we do have left.” Rob Harris, London, AP